All aircraft wings experience drag as they move through the air. The experienced drag may be separated into three components: induced drag, parasitic drag, and compressibility drag. Induced drag depends on the lift force carried by the lifting surfaces. Parasitic drag arises from contact between a moving surface and the fluid and includes such factors as the object form, skin friction, and interference factors. Compressibility drag is the drag associated with higher Mach numbers, which may include viscous and vortex drag, shock-wave drag, and any drag due to shock-induced separations, all of which may vary with Mach number. Of these, the induced drag has traditionally shown the greatest potential for improvement through the use of winglets or other wing tip devices.
Generally, an aircraft's wing may be swept to reduce compressibility drag effects on high-speed airplanes. A swept wing is generally designed so the angle between the aircraft's body and the wing is oblique, and specifically is swept toward the aft of the aircraft. The sweep of the wing's leading edge and trailing edge does not necessarily have to be at the same angle. A wing tip device may also be added to further reduce the drag on the wing. One alternative is to provide a raked wing tip. A raked wing tip conventionally has a higher degree of sweep than the rest of the wing. Winglets are also an alternative solution, generally used to increase the effective aspect ratio of a wing, with less structural impact than adding wingspan. Winglets are generally near vertical extensions of the wing tip. Wing tip devices may increase the lift generated at the wing tip, and reduce the induced drag caused by wingtip vortices, improving the lift-to-drag ratio. Although winglets reduce drag generated by wingtip vortices, winglets produce lift that increases the bending moment on the wing.
Various wing tip devices and geometries are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,971,832 (titled “Wing Tip Devices,” issued Jul. 5, 2011), US 2007/0114327 (titled “Wing Load Alleviation Apparatus and Method,” published May 24, 2007), U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,615 (titled “Wing Tip Extension for a Wing,” issued Apr. 20, 2004), U.S. Pat. No. 6,827,314 (titled “Aircraft with Active Control of the Warping of Its Wings,” issued Dec. 7, 2004), U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,778 (titled “Efficient Wing Tip Devices and Methods for Incorporating such Devices into Existing Wing Designs,” issued May 3, 2005), U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,968 (titled “Aircraft with Elliptical Winglets,” issued Nov. 26, 2002), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,253 (titled “Blended Winglet,” issued Sep. 20, 1994), each of which is incorporated by reference into this application as if fully set forth herein.